Leave A Comment

Dark Horse’s “Black Hammer” Delayed

Following a medical emergency suffered by a member of the book’s creative team, writer Jeff Lemire has revealed on his personal blog that Dark Horse series “The Black Hammer” has been postponed until further notice. The development comes in the wake of series artist Dean Ormston’s cerebral hemorrhage, a sudden illness that the he is currently recovering from. Lemire writes:

Black Hammer has been a labor of love for me. It’s a project that I’ve been working on, in various forms, for seven years. And as excited as I am to share it, sometimes life gets in the way of comics.

On March 26, my amazing collaborator, Dean Ormston suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the left side of his brain which has effected his whole right side. Dean is now at home and recovering.

As a result we have decided to post-pone the launch of Black Hammer until Dean is able to work regularly again. I’d like to thank all the fans and retailers for their patience and understanding as Dean recovers and promise that Black Hammer will be worth the wait! The important thing now is Dean’s health, and making sure he has the time he needs to make a full recovery.

CBR has comments from the team and series editor.

“To say I’ve wanted to work with Jeff Lemire for ages is an understatement,” said Ormston in a statement to CBR. “I love his art and writing in equal amounts. We kept exchanging art, meeting up at comic cons, and discussing possible projects for years, but something always got in the way. That was, until he asked me about a project called ‘Black Hammer.’ Saying yes was a no-brainer (no pun intended); it had everything and then some, In essence, this is a dream project, and to top it all off, I get to have my art enhanced by colorist supremo Dave Stewart.

“Sadly, about a month ago, I had a bleed on the brain, so things have been put on hold until I recover and get back to drawing fully,” Ormston continued. “I am tentatively getting back to drawing ‘Black Hammer,’ albeit slowly, but the outlook is positive and I’m confident of a full recovery.”

Dark Horse informed CBR that the first issue of “Black Hammer” has been finished and the delay has been done in order to ensure that the series can launch on a monthly, uninterrupted schedule. While a new launch date for the series has yet to be announced, Dark Horse said they will alert readers and retailers as soon as they know.

“‘Black Hammer’ has been a labor of love for me,” said Lemire. “It’s a project that I’ve been working on in various forms for seven years. And as excited as I am to share it, sometimes life gets in the way of comics. On March 26, my amazing collaborator Dean Ormston suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the left side of his brain, which affected his whole right side. Dean is now at home and recovering. As a result, we have decided to postpone the launch of ‘Black Hammer’ until Dean is able to work regularly again. I’d like to thank all the fans and retailers for their patience and understanding as Dean recovers and promise that ‘Black Hammer’ will be worth the wait!”

“‘Black Hammer’ is one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever been involved with,” said editor Wright, “and while it’s disappointing to delay the launch, that’s the only way to ensure that we can do it right, without delays between issues or a fill-in early in the series. Dean’s made ‘Black Hammer’s’ visuals his own, and none of us can imagine launching the book before he’s able to draw it uninterrupted. We are still so thrilled to be doing the series, and the pages we’re releasing today show why. We’ll reschedule the launch as soon as we can, and Jeff and Dean’s work on the full issue is going to blow everyone away!”